BOU AVENUEWynn Mountain
Feeling less enthusiastic about camping for a second weekend in a row, I
decided to do just a day trip to Montana's Glacier National Park on 15
June 2013. Joining me were Rafal (Raff) Kazmierczak and So
Nakagawa. After a late night out, I actually slept in and missed my
appointed meeting time with the two gentlemen. I had brief thoughts
of calling Raff and telling him to head out without me, but instead, I
left him a message saying that I would be a little late. I quickly
fed my cats, changed, and grabbed all my gear before hopping in my car
and driving to the south end of Calgary. I ended up being about 25
minutes late, but Raff and So were gracious enough to cut me some slack.
We promptly piled into Raff's SUV and made a brief stop at McDonald's (I
needed breakfast) before hitting the road.

On the way to Montana, we
discussed possible objectives to climb, and because I knew that many of
the bigger peaks were still snowbound, I suggested that we try Wynn
Mountain in the Many Glacier region of the park. Wynn Mountain was
appealing for numerous reasons. The trailhead is closer to the
border crossing and easy to get to, the approach is on an excellent
trail, and the ascent route up the southwest ridge is described by J.
Gordon Edwards (author of A Climber's Guide to Glacier National Park)
as mostly Class 2 or 3. Most of all, I was certain that the route
would be snow-free on this day which meant that I could leave my ice axe
and crampons in the car!

We had a bit of a delay at the border crossing when the US Customs
officials detained So, a Japanese citizen, and made him cough up $6 USD
for an I-94W visa waiver. Once they were convinced that So did not
intend on staying permanently in the US, we were allowed to continue our
journey to the trailhead at Many Glacier.

The approach hike for Wynn Mountain was easy but somewhat long; it
took us about 80 minutes to reach the bridge over Canyon Creek. On
the far side of the bridge, we left the main trail and thrashed up the
forested slope to climber's left of a tributary feeding into Canyon
Creek. This slope was very steep, and though we encountered the odd
beaten path here and there, the bushwhacking was sufficiently nasty to
leave a bad taste in my mouth. It took us about 35 minutes to reach
tree line, and from there, we only had to contend with about 45 minutes
of wicked scree bashing to gain the southwest ridge of Wynn Mountain.
In contrast, the rest of the ascent up the ridge was largely pleasant
hiking, and we gained the very broad but scenic summit ridge in another
hour and then reached the true summit after an additional 5-minute walk.

After spending over 50 minutes at the summit, we retraced our steps
for the descent. My weak ankle started to bother me, and I found it
hard to keep up with So and Raff. To their credit, they waited for
me at key junctures to make sure I did not get off-track especially while
descending the forested slope. The hike out along the approach
trail was again easy but still took me nearly 75 minutes (a little less
for the others).

On the drive home, we were stopped again at the border. This
time, the Canada Customs official did a quick search of Raff's SUV trunk.
He even remembered me from the previous weekend and asked if this was a
regular run for me, perhaps implying that I had other "business" besides
hiking in Glacier National Park. In any case, the smell of sweaty
gear probably prompted the official to cut short his search, and we were
soon allowed to go on our way. Subsequently, we stopped for burgers
at the Dairy Queen in Cardston (next time I think we will stop at the A&W
in Fort MacLeod instead) before settling into a long but uneventful drive
back to Calgary.

I want to thank both Raff and So for their patience and good company
and especially Raff for driving and playing Yolanda Be Cool's We No
Speak Americano in his car!